Trouble Lurking
by Flight of Phoenix Wings
Summary: No one has ever really given Argit credit for being smart. However, even he can see his old friend Kevin has a little problem... One-shot. Alien Force, implied Gwevin.


Trouble Lurking

Anyone who knew Argit knew that he was a piece of scum, a con-man and a double-crossing, two-timing traitor in fifty-six different galactic languages; everyone knew that he was stupid enough to mess with some _very_ dangerous people and smart enough to never get killed or caught at his games.

Case in point: Kevin Levin.

For a long time now, Argit thought he had Kevin pretty well figured out. They were 'buddies' after all; Argit double-crossed him slightly less than he did with other people and Kevin had never actually followed through with his threats to gut him like a fish when Argit owed him for some something or other. Not too different in their goals for life, they both wanted to get rich as quick as possible with the least amount of legitimate work, to look out for number one and to spend as little time incarcerated as necessary. They did whatever they wanted to in the name of personal gain and to hell with the consequences later.

Or at least, that's the way it used to be.

Yes, for many, many moons now Argit had noticed some very disturbing changes coming over his dear old friend; Kevin had been wanting less and less involvement in some wonderful business deals (though admittedly, they were terribly illegal in more than one or two star systems), he was keeping some rather volatile alien tech to himself and either keeping it or destroying it entirely, or worse yet, selling it to people who would use it for perfectly legal and non-productive reasons. And then there was the bombshell that Argit never saw coming.

Kevin became a Plumber. An actual, _honest_ and _legitimate_, badged, _Plumber_. THE Kevin _Eleven_ himself, chewed up and spat back out by the Null Void, a known, respected and, by some, _feared_ criminal, had become an over-glorified intergalactic police officer!

To be fair, maybe Argit should have known something was wrong. Kevin had been spending _waayyy_ too much of his time with a bunch of goody-goody good-guys that just _had_ to run around trying to fix other people's problems and then go and save the _whole entire universe _from complete and utter destruction. But then, Argit had just thought that Kevin had some _brilliant_ scam that involved double-crossing them in the works. Turns out Kevin liked what he was doing and those other guys were just a bad influence on Kevin's little interest in helping people. Argit had thought it wouldn't last and soon Kevin would be back to his good-old criminal self. Until the day came that Argit realized Kevin had a problem.

"Hey Kevin," Argit sang as he slunk into the garage where Kevin was working on his car's engine, "what's going on?"

"Argit?" Kevin's head snapped up, brow furrowed, "I thought I told you not to come around here anymore."

"Yeah, I know, I know, old buddy, but I just got word about some Tetramand mercenaries looking to trade a bunch of stolen Incursion laser disintegrators for some molecular trans-matter rifles and I know you know where you can get your hands on some…" Argit was standing with his fingers dangling under the hood of the car and very narrowly missed getting his fingers chopped off when Kevin slammed it shut.

"I'm not interested."

"But they're gonna give us the disintegrators _and_ pay! We're talking major profit!" Argit gaped.

"And I said I'm not interested." Kevin said without looking at him while he wiped his oily hands on an old rag, "Oh, and by the way? You still owe me for the last time I got tech for you. _And_ the time before that…" Argit threw himself in front of him panicking.

"But I told these guys I already had the rifles!"

"Sounds like you have a problem then."

"Kevin! You're my friend! You've _got_ to help me!" Argit wrung his hands, close to begging now.

"No I don't and I don't know anyone selling molecular trans-matter rifles anyway," Kevin glanced up at the clock hanging on the wall; "Look Argit I've got…someone…coming by to look at some alien tech, so you need to get out of here."

"You've got a deal?" Argit perked right back up, "Can I get in on it?"

"It's not a deal, it's—"

"Kevin?" A new voice floated into the open garage. Argit glared at the new addition.

"Hey Gwen," Kevin smiled as he brushed past the rat-like con artist, "Come on inside, Argit was just leaving."

"Somebody coming by to look at some tech, huh?" Argit muttered darkly as he passed them. He was out of sight, but not out of his excellent hearing range when he heard the two talking.

"I thought you said you weren't talking to him any more?" The redheaded energy manipulator said to Kevin suspiciously.

"Hey, I haven't been, he keeps finding _me_. I haven't contacted him for months now," he replied defensively.

"Kevin…" she sighed.

"C'mon Gwen, I told you you were right—Argit's _not_ really my friend, he double-crosses me more than doing anything else and he always expects me to haul his butt out of the fire every time he gets in trouble. Cut me a little slack here; I'm trying _really_ hard to go legit—okay, _mostly_ legit—and you know it."

"I know," Gwen said resigned, "I shouldn't bother you so much about it, I know you're trying."

"It's okay, it's probably a good thing you do or I'll be back to my old self in no time. And I've got pretty good motivation to keep clean, don't I?" Kevin added slyly and she laughed.

"Okay, okay. I came over so you could show me how to hook up a regenerating power pack to something that runs off Earth batteries, not so you could flirt with me." Her voice had a smile in it.

"I can multitask," Kevin told her. "Come over here and look, this stuff's easy…"

Argit had heard enough. He slunk further away from the warehouse where his friend had become a traitor. Argit was disgusted, he was concerned, he was mad but above all else, he was scheming.

That girl Gwendolyn that Kevin was so obsessed with had turned Kevin against him. Kevin was giving up a major scam—err—_deal_ and spending his day teaching this stupid Earth girl about alien _batteries_? He was going _legit_ just because she _wanted_ him to? Kevin was making a huge mistake; this girl was going to ruin him.

And Argit intended to help Kevin fix his problem.

Anyone who knew Argit knew that he was a piece of scum, a con-man and a double-crossing, two-timing traitor in fifty-six different galactic languages; everyone knew that he was stupid enough to mess with some _very_ dangerous people and smart enough to never get killed or caught at his games.

However, there were very few people still alive who knew just how dangerous _he_ could be when he was serious about something.

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A/N: My first venture into the Ben 10 fandom. This had originally been part of a 100 theme challenge I'm toying with, but my muse took hold of the topic and ran off with it.

I may write a sequel if anyone is interested in this…


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